Perfect ’10

Everything That Was Important in 2010

With just four short days remaining of these 365, we thought we’d take a quick minute to revisit some
favorites from 2010—from flying over the Embarcadero on a zip line to dining in a bus to eating
cupcake-crusted chicken. Of course, anything can happen in four days...

This kind of star power doesn’t come to downtown Napa often. At least, not until Morimoto stepped up and
brought his Iron Chef skills to the Napa Riverfront with his signature beer and his signature Tuna Pizza,
among others. It’s like Kitchen Stadium, but without the raw pepper.

It’s no secret that pizza has unifying powers (something to consider in the realm of world peace), but we
officially started paying attention when Anthony Mangieri left Manhattan to set up his stove on the formerly
deserted corner of 11th and Howard. Thereby uniting our two fine coasts single-handedly.

A new temple of cocktail majesty is more than enough reason to rejoice. If it’s also inspired by rum and
tequila, and involves a biodynamic garden patio, booths made of salvaged whiskey barrels and hearty tavern
fare, so much the better. But really, cocktail majesty would’ve been just fine.

This seemed to be the year that dessert became the main course. Case in point: the Red Velvet Fried
Chicken from American Cupcake, which took fried chicken into the realm of the satisfyingly bizarre,
followed by Pal’s Takeaway’s one-day-only
donut ham-and-cheese sandwich. The black forest crusted pork chop is only a matter of time...

Bus Restaurants

2009’s street cart scene turned into motorized, four-wheeled versions dominating the city throughout 2010.
And the trend finally culminated in two mammoth bus restaurant operations debuting in full force. Between
Le Truc on Brannan and
Diamond Lil, we think Muni needs to step it up.

In a city where the hills are compared to roller coasters, you could say that it takes a lot to faze us. We
did take notice after sell-out crowds for
the zip line this past spring, followed by crowds eager to jump on nearly 80 different tramps at the
House of Air. Maybe 2011 will be the year of spelunking...